High-end beauty on a student budget

Credit: LendingMemo.com

As a university student, I know and understand the pain of running out of mascara, or bronzer, or concealer and realising that I’m going to have to fork out yet another £10 on something that, really, should be about £3.

There’s no denying that makeup is ridiculously expensive, but after six months of being a student, I’ve managed to find good quality products that you can buy without spending half of your weekly budget.

Foundation & powder:

I used to use the Revlon Colorstay Foundation, but have found a much cheaper, just as shine-controlling an alternative in the shape of Rimmel’s Stay Matte Foundation. The texture means that you don’t have to use a lot to get good coverage, and at only £5.99 it’s half the price of most other high quality foundations.

Sticking with Rimmel’s Stay Matte products, their pressed powder is great for keeping my makeup in place all day, and the shade 001 Transparent means you can apply it over any foundation and it won’t change the colour.

Blusher & bronzer:

Since coming to university I’ve purchased the Sleek blusher in the shade Rose Gold, and although it doesn’t achieve quite the same effect as brands like Benefit, it’s still a good quality blusher for a low price.

Sleek’s contour kit is also a fantastic purchase for those on a budget, as the colour and tone is very similar to the bronzer from Bourjois, except that you get more of it for less.

Eyeshadow, mascara & eyeliner:

The £2.99 mascara from Collection has been my saving grace these past few months. It doesn’t run, doesn’t clump your lashes together and creates the same length and volume as any other more pricey mascara.

Another Collection beauty steal is their felt-tip eyeliner. It’s easy to apply, doesn’t smudge and saves me from the hassle of applying liquid eyeliner every morning.

I mentioned one of their palettes in my last post, and the i-Divine eyeshadows from Sleek are genuinely becoming my favourite value-for-money beauty products. Any one of these palettes gives a similar coverage to the Naked palettes from Urban Decay, only this time they cost £10 and not £30.

Hopefully this post will help those of you on a similar budget to myself and that, next time you run out of something, you won’t have to break the bank to pay for it.

A Makeup Guide For Beginners

Credit: Neil Hinchley, Flickr.

When I first started using makeup, I had nobody to explain what kind of products I should be buying and how to use them. The end result was disastrous. I don’t even want to talk about the numerous foundations I went through before realising that I wasn’t buying the right shade for my skin tone.

What I needed was a guide in starting out with makeup, and so to save you from the embarrassment I suffered, I have devised one for you.

The base:

For those of you who are lucky to still have problem-free skin, I would suggest a tinted moisturiser (like this one from Nivea) rather than foundation, and then some loose powder (from Natural Collection) for the base of your makeup.

If you find that you suffer from problematic skin, then you may have to use concealer (this from Collection 2000 is a great investment) to cover up blemishes or dark marks, and replace the tinted moisturiser with foundation.

Rimmel provide great foundations for all skin types. I would suggest the Stay Matte Foundation for oily skin, the Wake Me Up Foundation for dry skin and the Match Perfection for an uneven skin tone.

The cheeks:

This blusher from Barry M is great for beginners. It’s highly pigmented and blends well, with a huge range of colours to choose from, making it suitable for light and dark skin.

The eyes:

The Au Naturel eyeshadow palette from Sleek is a fantastic product for people just starting out with makeup. It’s cheap, and the range of colours means you can change your look on a daily basis.

You can also use the black or dark brown shade as eyeliner, as most people struggle using proper eyeliner – which makes it a no-go for beginners.

For your eyelashes, use mascara that will elongated your lashes (such as this one from Maybelline), rather than making them seem thick and spidery. 

The lips:

I would suggest lip gloss (from Tanya Burr’s collection) or tinted lip balm for everyday use. This will help to make your lips look soft and dewy, and will stop your makeup from looking overdone.

Hopefully this guide will stop you from getting caught in the pitfalls that I ended up in when I first began wearing makeup, and will serve as a good basis for building up and experimenting with your makeup collection.

Makeup & Confidence

Credit: Hayley Bolan, Flickr.

It’s difficult as a makeup wearer to convince people that I’m confident with my natural appearance. To an outsider I must look like I’m deeply insecure about the way that I look if I don’t take the time to ‘put my face on’ in the morning.

Of course I have the usual insecurities every once in a while, for example if my skin is breaking out or I’ve not had a lot of sleep and I look and feel like death warmed up, but I’ve never seen makeup as a way to cover up or something to hide behind.

Naturally in a world where women’s flaws are pointed out and exaggerated in every advertisement for cosmetics, some of us are bound to feel like we ‘have’ to buy Revlon’s new concealer for £7.99. But my relationship with makeup doesn’t really stem from that basis.

For me, makeup is more an extension of myself as a person. I love to experiment with different styles and looks, and I enjoy creating new things. When I look at models in magazines and think ‘I want to look like that’, it’s not because I think I’m unattractive, it’s because I’ve identified with whatever image that model is projecting and want to incorporate it into my own sense of style.

It’s not that I lack confidence and so need to put makeup on to feel good about myself – I am sure enough in myself to walk down the street without any makeup on whatsoever. It’s just that I feel more like I’m expressing myself when I do wear makeup, because I know I’m projecting the kind of image I want to imprint on the world.

Everyone has an idea of the type of person that they want to be, and it’s not unhealthy to want to create a good impression. Nor does it mean you’re insecure. I’m not claiming that by wearing makeup I’m being my ‘true’ and ‘natural’ self, but it seems absurd to me that women are labelled as ‘unconfident’ and ‘insecure’ for wearing makeup when, really, all they’re doing is having the confidence to be the person they want to be, and create the impression they want to create.